Method and system for implementing a data center operating system

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a Data Center Operating System. An embodiment of the present invention comprises: a memory component that stores inventory data for a plurality of data centers; an interactive interface that receives one or more user inputs; an API input that receives data from one or more data center systems; and a processor configured to perform the steps comprising: receiving, via the API input, monitored data from a plurality of data centers at one or more locations; automatically generating, via the processor, an interactive data center floorplan that comprises the monitored data at a device-level for a specific data center; and displaying, via the interactive interface, the interactive data center floorplan in one or more views wherein the one or more views comprises detailed data for a particular rack in the specific data center.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application62/364,981, filed Jul. 21, 2016, the contents of which are incorporatedherein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to implementing and managing adata center operating system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For many of its core processes, Data center teams rely on a mix of largethird-party applications and small custom-built tools. The maintenancecost of the vendor applications is high and the internal tools are oftenunsupported. Current systems are overly complex and result in poorperformance due to the restrictive nature of the database architectures.Moreover, current systems are cumbersome with their dedicated database,dedicate workflow systems and other requirements.

These and other drawbacks exist.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, one aspect of the invention is to address one or more ofthe drawbacks set forth above. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, a computer implemented data center operating systemcomprises: a memory component that stores inventory data for a pluralityof data centers; an interactive interface that receives one or more userinputs; an API input that receives data from one or more data centersystems; and a processor, coupled to the API input, memory component andthe interactive interface, the processor configured to perform the stepscomprising: receiving, via the API input, monitored data from aplurality of data centers at one or more locations; automaticallygenerating, via the processor, an interactive data center floorplan thatcomprises the monitored data at a device-level for a specific datacenter; and displaying, via the interactive interface, the interactivedata center floorplan in one or more views wherein the one or more viewscomprises detailed data for a particular rack in the specific datacenter.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a computerimplemented method that operates a data center system comprises thesteps of: receiving, via an API input, monitored data from a pluralityof data centers at one or more locations; automatically generating, viaa processor, an interactive data center floorplan that populates thefloorplan with the monitored data; and displaying, via the interactiveinterface, the interactive data center floorplan in one or more viewswherein the one or more views comprises detailed data for a particularrack in a particular data center; wherein the API input receives datafrom one or more data center systems; the interactive interface receivesone or more user inputs; the processor is coupled to the API input, amemory component and the interactive interface.

The computer implemented system, method and medium described hereinprovide unique advantages to entities, organizations and other users,according to various embodiments of the invention. The innovative systemand method facilitate management of data center operations and furtherprovide unique tools to more accurately predict resource consumption andother functionality specific to data centers. These and other advantageswill be described more fully in the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to facilitate a fuller understanding of the present inventions,reference is now made to the appended drawings. These drawings shouldnot be construed as limiting the present inventions, but are intended tobe exemplary only.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary user interface of a DCOS system that illustratesa bird's eye view of a data center space, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary user interface of a DCOS system that illustratesrack elevations and analytical information, according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 3 an exemplary user interface that illustrates rack patterns andanalytical information, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 an exemplary system that illustrates a recommendation engine,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary flowchart for an auto-placement feature,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The following description is intended to convey an understanding of thepresent invention by providing specific embodiments and details. It isunderstood, however, that the present invention is not limited to thesespecific embodiments and details, which are exemplary only. It isfurther understood that one possessing ordinary skill in the art, inlight of known systems and methods, would appreciate the use of theinvention for its intended purposes and benefits in any number ofalternative embodiments, depending upon specific design and other needs.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to implementing aData Center Operating System (DCOS) to directly monitor load andoptimize Data Center capacity. The innovative system manages capacityand power consumption in data centers at various locations and providesinformation concerning availability of data center housing as well asprovisioning and capacity needs. An embodiment of the present inventionis directed to an interactive DCOS Tool that brings together variousmodules and/or data feeds.

A data center generally refers to a facility used to house computersystems and associated components, such as telecommunications andstorage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup powersupplies, redundant data communications connections, environmentalcontrols (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression, etc.) and varioussecurity devices. A data center may occupy one or more rooms of abuilding, one or more floors, an entire building or multiple buildings.A data center houses equipment, such as servers that may be mounted inrack cabinets or other storage infrastructure. Racks are usually placedin rows forming corridors or aisles between them. This architectureallows individuals access to the front and rear of each cabinet.Oftentimes, servers and other equipment may differ greatly in size, someoccupying many square feet of floor space.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a DCOS Tool may beAPI-driven so that the tool inherits data from other sources, as well aspublish to other applications (e.g., supply/demand management,inventory, data center management and other toolsets, etc.). Theinnovative system includes a management platform that consolidates datapoints from various repositories and sources, internal and external toan entity. An embodiment of the present invention is directed to a highlevel framework based around Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)so that various sources may effectively communicate with the DCOS Tool,effectively taking and receiving data from other systems and sources.The DCOS Tool provides a plug-and-play application that is flexible andsophisticated in its capabilities.

An embodiment of the present invention may be specific to a particularenvironment that visualizes data in a customized way for a particularservice (e.g., data center teams, etc.) for key decision making. Anembodiment of the present invention may be flexible to accommodatechanges to data sources and allow the publishing of data to otherinternal applications.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the DCOS Tool maybe used to manage a strategic data center estate in line with an agreedData Center Strategy which may encompass establishment of new facilitiesin various locations, e.g., North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, etc.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to a customizedinteractive user interface (UI) for data center teams that providesvarious views, e.g., a birds-eye view, rack view, etc., of one or moredata centers. According to an exemplary embodiment, the presentinvention may be hosted on cloud-hosting platform and may further useScalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and JavaScript to draw the equipment andmake it searchable with data from databases, servers, and/or othersources, including Cassandra, SQL databases. A cloud hosting platformmay include a user interface application, which may further include aWeb application running atop an OS software stack. SVG may represent anXML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics with supportfor interactivity and animation. Other user interface applications maybe implemented. An embodiment of the present invention is directed todynamically generating equipment in a user's browser when a page isloaded, which means that users are not required to wait for a download.In contrast, current systems require offline processing, whereinformation (e.g., images, etc.) are not available to a user until thenext day or later. Accordingly, the DCOS Tool of an embodiment of thepresent invention provides advantages over current systems in terms ofaccuracy, speed and up-to-date data.

For example, the DCOS Tool may collect live power data from a pluralityof racks and other sources. In this example, the system may draw heatmaps and view that data and history in real-time. The system may beavailable via various devices, including a mobile device (e.g., smartphone, tablet, etc.) executing an application (“App”) as well as desktopand other devices.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to providing asoftware veneer to data center management to illustrate floor plans,rack elevations, inventory data, capacity analysis (including scenarioplanning), device placement automation, etc.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to a single frameworkso that internal tools may be redeveloped onto it and new tools may bebuilt. This foundation may form the cornerstone of future applicationsand so developing messaging and APIs will be fundamental. An embodimentof the present invention is directed to ensuring that tools aresufficiently consistent that they look like a single application tousers but flexible enough that different users may separately build andadd components.

An embodiment of the present invention may be used by various users,including data center team resources, customers, supply chain teams,etc. The system may provide such users with data including reservationinformation and lead times. The framework of an embodiment of thepresent invention allows for customers to view information bothprogrammatically and via a user interface.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the system providesa unified framework and a single data schema to get data from and senddata to strategic tools thereby simplifying integration with othertools. An embodiment of the present invention is directed to anapplication framework that receives input from several data feeds (e.g.,inventory, power monitoring and data center management tools, Cassandra,custom databases, etc.). The DCOS Tool is flexible enough to easily addfuture functionality as “modules”; easy to develop a new module and dropit in to the app to replace an older or vendor one; and implements acore API that different modules, users and reports can use. Anembodiment of the present invention may rely on a number of key datadependencies, e.g., inventory, data center management and cabling tools.Moreover, the system may access several databases and extensive datacollection processes.

The system may also include a visual and data template so that modulesmay follow the same or similar visual theme. The system may contain theability to use permission groups. In addition, the system may avoidcomplex support issues. The creation and management of workflow usingbusiness logic may be easily supported. The system may be designed to becloud native and may be hosted on any cloud platform that provides ajavascript or similar environment. The system may further contain acentral reporting database which may be accessible by both API and SQLqueries; and contain highly documented and commented source code.Moreover, the system of an embodiment of the present invention may beself-healing in that it may perform auto restart services that havefailed. The system may further have a globally distributed UI, API anddatabase with geo-load balancing. Accordingly, users may beautomatically directed to an appropriate environment.

Using a shared backbone of databases and services, the DCOS Tool mayutilize a modular design so that internal tools may be replacedone-by-one over a long period. The DCOS Tool may replace a number oflegacy vendor tools with modules designed around real processes, builton modern development frameworks and in an agile manner.

Each module may be developed in stages. For example, according to anexemplary illustration, initially only read-only features may be builtout and tested by users. Features may then be upgraded to allow changesto the database until eventually the module may replace an existing tool(e.g., data center management and cabling toolsets, etc.). There may bea number of core modules in the DCOS Tool that sit on top of a corebackbone, i.e., the API. For example, each screen and dashboard may bemade up of different modules. During a development process, modules maybe developed by different teams and work standalone (but integrated witha DCOS backbone). Other modules may also be provided by vendors andthird parties, with the only development being integration.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary user interface of a DCOS system that illustratesa bird's eye view of a data center space, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. An embodiment of the present invention isdirected to data center operating system. For example, the system may bea cloud-native, API-enabled node.js application designed to be aninnovative DCOS tool. Running on micro-services, the data centeroperating system may provide reporting, monitoring and data quality atstrategic and non-strategic data centers and technology rooms. Anembodiment of the present invention may be an API driven systemintegrated into other systems. For example, user interface features maybe powered by a DCOS-API.

In addition, the system may support various types of user devices,including desktop, mobile, etc. For example, users may use tablets toaccess the various modules of the data center operating system to carryout day to day tasks. Other users may use an application running on adesktop to access larger more detailed views. For example, a user may beon the floor of a data center with a tablet (or other mobile device). Byscanning a device on site, the DCOS Tool may identify the device andprovide detailed measurements and other data relative to the scanneddevice.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the system may be developed on aninternal cloud hosting platform which is based on the cloud foundryplatform as a service. The DCOS Tool may generate the user interfaceusing SVG—a JavaScript framework that is linked to a back-endcloud-based database. This feature enables users to drill-down intodifferent components and access feeds from various other systems. Thecalculations and measurements are received directly from a livemonitoring system that provides insights as to a current state of aparticular device, rack, row or other group of devices at any point intime. Other variations may be implemented.

FIG. 1 illustrates how separate modules may integrate into anapplication framework. A Top bar 110 provides consistency across variousviews and includes features such as a site dropdown or a search andcustom features relevant to the context of the current view (e.g.,measured power, total racks, search bar, etc.).

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to auto-generating aresponsive and interactive data center floorplan that may be drawn inSVG via a JSON object provided over an API. The innovative systemprovides responsiveness and interactive features for various users andapplications.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to populatingreal-time monitored data and representing it on any part of a floorplan.As shown in FIG. 1, an exemplary floorplan may include a plurality of ITrooms and rows of devices, represented by R01, R02, . . . R16. Themonitored points may include any sensor data from an area or location,such as a building. Monitored data may include real-time power measuredin kW, power recorded over an arbitrary period of time (e.g., kWh),electrical phase balance, power trending, localtemperature/pressure/airflow readings.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to generating theuser interface based on an API that receives data from various sources.The DCOS Tool ties together a plurality of different data sources,performs calculations in real time and automatically generates theinteractive interface.

The floorplan, illustrated in FIG. 1, may be searchable on a userinterface (e.g., webpage) across various integrated data points. TheDCOS Tool may also use live color layering and live data to providevarious features, including providing search results and highlightingtrends such as power utilization as well as dense/sparse areas of thedata center. The DCOS Tool may also provide warning limits and breaches,e.g., if kW goes above a target set by the Recommendation Engine (below)of 70% of typical power usage of identically configured racks in othersites. The DCOS Tool further provides details concerning service andconfiguration. In addition, the DCOS Tool illustrates a future state ofthe data center, e.g. what will it look like in six months, how is powerexpected to grow and/or shrink, etc. The DCOS Tool further displaystickets/faults provided by external ticketing or error systems.

Various functions and operations (e.g., create, read, update, delete,etc.) may be directly performed from the floorplan by text input,keyboard changes or by drag- and drop that immediately updates theofficial database object.

An embodiment of the present invention provides changes and readsinstantly due to an optimized combination of SVG, SQL and AngularJS.

As shown in FIG. 1, a bird's eye view may be presented for a particulardata center location. Data Center name or identifier may be display at112 and may include geographic locations, which may be represented ascities, states, countries, geographic area, etc. For example, an entitymay maintain data centers in various locations, including cities,states, regions, such as Delaware, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Californiaand/or other geographic location. The location may include a specificarea. A specific space within a data center may be displayed at 114. Inthis example, a specific floor of Data Center 1 has been selected. Othersubsets or geographic boundaries may be identified. Each of the rowsrepresents a room or other designated area. Dropdown menus (or otherinteractive graphic) allows for selection of other locations and datacenters. Each block may represent one or more racks or other partition.The view may also include various levels—upper level, lower level, etc.Also, measurements may be provided including measured power (andpercentage to capacity) 118 and total number of racks 120 for theselected location and area. As shown in FIG. 1, each block may representa device (or devices) with corresponding power measurements. In thisexample, the power measurements are in kW. Other metrics may beprovided, including temperature, airflow, pressure, etc.

Upon selection of a particular rack (or section), detailed informationmay be displayed via an interactive window or other graphic. Forexample, information may include inventory number, asset tag, grid,network zone, oldest device, rack pattern, monitored information, cableroute, links, derate, average, maximum, kW expected and kW measured. Theinformation displayed may be provided via an API in real-time or nearreal-time. A corresponding rack view may also be available. Derategenerally refer to operating a device at less than its rated maximumcapability.

Upon selection of a Room (or other predetermined subset), detailedinformation may be provided via an interactive window. For example, byselecting IT Room 3, a window may provide details concerning InstalledRacks, Name, kW limit, Containment and kW measurements relating toderate, average, maximum. Other details may be provided.

An exemplary user interface may provide various views at 130, which mayinclude No Color Layer, kW utilization, Install Status, Network Purpose,Service, Upcoming Installs, Cabling, etc. Other variations and views maybe available.

In a kW utilization view example, each rack may display color, graphicsand/or other codes representing varying degrees, such as a light colorto indicate low kW, a medium color to indicate medium kW and a darkershade to indicate high kW. In this example, low, medium and high may bebased on predetermined thresholds or ranges. According to anotherexample, low, medium and high may be based on measurements so that ⅓ isallotted to low, another third is allotted to medium and the final thirdis allotted to high. Additional gradients may be provided to illustrateadditional levels and intensity (e.g., low, low-medium, medium,medium-high and high). Various graphics, codes and variations may beimplemented.

For example, other views may include Install Status, Network Purpose,Service, Upcoming Installs, etc. According to an exemplary embodiment,for Service, a user may select network, storage compute, etc.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary user interface of a DCOS system that illustratesrack elevations and analytical information, according to an embodimentof the present invention. FIG. 2 provides an illustration of aparticular device, such as an appliance, server, etc. The device may bea specific rack identified as Rack 1 associated with Pattern 1. As shownin FIG. 2, 210 provides an illustration of a rack view with varioussections. Section 210 may display device names, power measurements,models and/or other characteristic. Each section may represent anindividual piece of equipment (or other subset of the rack). The sizeand dimensions may be representative of the actual physical hardware.Accordingly, a larger piece of hardware may be represented as largerthan other devices in 210. A calculation of measured power may bedisplayed at 212. By selecting a specific device within 210, aninteractive window may be displayed that provides device details,including inventory number, manufacturer, model, kW expected, hardwarelifecycle, Age, etc. Chart 214 illustrates a power chart with historicaldata. In this example, graphic 215 demonstrates used power (in kW) andline 216 illustrates Derate Power. Other data and metrics may beillustrated. For example, data relating to CPU usage and memory data maybe accessed to better understand the aggregated power data.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the system may illustrate powerconsumption for a particular device (or group of devices) for a timeperiod, e.g., the past 30 days, etc. Section 217 provides informationconcerning power measurements, including latest reading, average power,power variance etc., for the particular rack. This information may begenerated in real time via an API. The DCOS Tool may receive data fromvarious sources via an API and then generate calculations in real-time.

An embodiment of the present invention may also generate reports andalerts, provide trends and perform predictive analysis for variousscenarios.

An embodiment of the present invention may auto generate a visualinterpretation of a rack layout using database information rendered inSVG. The system may also visualize live and historical power for a givenrack directly from a globally distributed power collector. The systemmay also visualize: Phase balancing; History; Trends; Comparable racks(using rack patterns) as well as other metrics and features.

An embodiment of the present invention may visualize service utilizationwithin a rack on the same chart. For example, the system may plot realpower, CPU and memory utilization figures on a configurable chart. Also,the system may plot real power from a specific rack on the same axis asthe collected power trend of the pattern to compare how a rack matchesup to the average for that pattern.

An embodiment of the present invention enables a user to view live faulttickets for devices within the rack. The system may enable physicalidentification of the rack by switching on/off lighting in the datacenter. The system may further physically unlock racks based on anauthentication and API call from the tool, matching it up with an activefault ticket. Accordingly, each rack opened in a data center may bedirectly auditable against a fault ticket.

FIG. 3 an exemplary user interface that illustrates rack patterns andanalytical information, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. An embodiment of the present invention is directed togrouping racks into patterns based on identical, similar and/or relatedhardware and application configurations.

As shown in FIG. 3, details concerning a particular device may beprovided. 310 illustrates a rack view of a device with varying levelsrepresenting stacks, etc. Section 310 may display power measurements,models and/or other characteristic. A calculation of measured power maybe displayed at 328. Section 314 illustrates a power summary. Section316 provides details concerning previous installs over a predeterminedtime period, e.g., 12 months. Section 318 provides forecasted power.Section 320 illustrates power distribution. Section 322 illustrates apower reduction scenario. Section 324 identifies racks that are at risk(or other condition). Section 326 provides details concerning sites,most at risk racks and power measurement (in kW).

A user may interact with the system by moving button 312, for example.Other user interactive features may be implemented. This providesadditional insight into planning purposes. By sliding the power barusing button 312, the system may recalculate measurements, includingcapacity at 328, power reduction at 322 and racks at risk 324. Forexample, a user may identify a power measurement that correlates to 0 or1 rack at risk, as shown at 324. With this feature, users may view howmuch can be saved and how much risk is at stake under each scenario.

In this example, the Power measurement is shown to be 5.3 kW. Under thisscenario, stranded capacity released is at 1,764 kW. Overall powerreduction is illustrated at 322. At risk racks are at 45. In thisscenario, most at risk racks are illustrated at 326, by Site, rackidentifier and kW over.

In accordance with the various embodiments of the present invention,every deployed rack may become part of a “pattern” within a DCOSdatabase which performs collective measurements and trending against allof them. The system may use collected power data for each rack toidentify trends in the pattern and present them to users when new racksare being installed. For example, an embodiment of the present inventionmay recognize that power usage is heaviest during a time period (e.g., 9am-10 am window) or based on an event (e.g., after being installed ittakes five months before a rack gets to average power usage). The systemmay also warn users if there is growth across the pattern that peakshigher than the acceptable physical limit in other site (e.g., site Alimit is 10 kW, site B limit is 5 kW). For example, the system mayidentify a pattern average of 7 kW. If the user wants to install in siteB, the system may identify a warning.

An embodiment of the present invention may recommend which numbersshould actually be used for planning future installs based on anaggregated pattern data.

For example, an embodiment of the present invention may aggregatedevices together (e.g., cabinets, etc.) and view the data on anaggregated level. As shown in Power Summary 314, there are 276 racksinstalled and about half of them (148, or 54%) are being monitored. Asindicated in Power Summary 314, maximum power is 8.18 kW and an averagepower is 3.8 kW. For example, a user may then slide the button 312 to3.5 kW and provide insight as to new install planning.

When a pattern is first created, e.g., Pattern 1, an embodiment of thepresent invention may run load testing on the hardware to create anoverall estimate power value for a rack, called the derate. In thisexample, the derate for Pattern 1 may be 10 kW.

Once the system begins to install instances of Pattern 1 globally, anembodiment of the present invention may collect real-time monitoringdata within the DCOS Tool. This data may then be viewed, as illustratedin FIG. 3, as aggregate data points. The user may then run a scenario toreduce and/or increase the derate value to assess impact. Once the valuehas been altered to a point that reaches an acceptable count of racks atrisk, say to 8 kW, then this may be saved and used for Pattern 1 goingforward.

The user may view current installations of Pattern 1 and “release” anystranded power, in this case 2 kW for each instance. The user may alsouse the new derate value of 8 kW for planning purposes when a demand forPattern 1 comes through the system.

The number, on the button 312 may represent a “derated kW,” this mayeffectively be an amount of power reserved for each rack in the pattern.So in the data center, if a new rack is installed then 3.5 kW of powermay be reserved for that rack and no other user or system will be ableto use that power. If the user increases the number, then the overallpower each rack has reserved may be increased (e.g., increase by 1 kWfor 276 racks costs 276 kW in total). If the user decreases the number,then the power may be released for other functions to use in the datacenter. In this example, average power usage may be 3.8 kW for thepattern and “derated kW” or “reserved kW” may be 3.5 kW. Accordingly, ifonly 3.5 kW is provided to every rack, then some racks may not haveenough power to run and be “at risk.” The DCOS Tool enables users tomodel how much reserved power may be freed up in the data centers butalso represent associated risks with freeing up that reserved power asthe analytical data may allow existing capacity to be released.

However, at this level, the system may indicate a number of racks atrisk. In this exemplary scenario, there may be 102 racks at risk. Thisenables users to safely adjust planning numbers to thereby improveefficiencies at data centers.

According to another example, a user may adjust button 312 to now read6.7 kW. In this example, the system may indicate that there is 1 rack atrisk and the rack at risk is operating 0.2 kW above the 6.7 kW.

An embodiment of the present invention may auto calculate potentialsavings and risks based on changes to planning numbers. For example, thesystem may determine how much total power that may be recovered if theuser altered the reserved power numbers using a Recommendation Engine'ssuggestions to be closer to reality. The system may then realize thosesavings over every site or a subset of sites. For example, the systemmay install a slightly modified pattern and calculate predictedpotential savings if it was deployed more widely. In addition, thesystem may identify “Risk racks” and outliers based on collected powerdata.

FIG. 4 an exemplary system that illustrates a recommendation engine,according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the DCOS system may handle changerequests in a data center by leveraging a Recommendation Engine 416 tomore efficiently consume data center assets.

As shown in FIG. 4, a new request 410 may be received at an input ofuser interface 412. Requests for changes within the data center may bemade via integrated systems or manually raised within the DCOS system.Requests may relate to installing, changing, investigating or removing apiece(s) of equipment.

Requests and recommendations may be visualized and further madeavailable to users via an interactive user interface, represented asDCOS UI 412.

Recommendation Engine 416 may receive inputs from Demand Profile 418,Pattern Module 420 as well as Supply Pools 422 and Monitoring and DesignFactors 424.

Each request 410 may have an associated demand profile 418 whichdescribes areas of the data center of which it will consume, along withquantities. These may be are categorized as: Power (e.g., kW draw, powersupply count); Network (ports/ips); Physical space; Temperatureconsiderations; Airflow direction; Historical trends (of similarequipment); Previous alarms or manual Alerts; as well as other predicteddemand for similar equipment.

Each demand profile may be managed with a pattern module 420. Thepattern module may highlight existing analysis on similar equipment toprovide recommendations on what the resulting demand profile should be.This information may then be used as a reference for new requests aspart of a Demand Profile step.

Recommendation Engine 416 may compare a demand profile for a request andmatch it against available supply pools. Recommendation Engine 416 maythen evaluate an optimal and effective solution for a request based onmaximizing utilization of data center assets.

Consumable areas of the data center may be grouped into Supply Pools,represented by 422. Supply Pools may include: Power breaker ratings andthresholds; Cooling Limits; Space Limits; Network Types; Cabling Areas;Data center aisle/row temperature limits, etc.

Recommendation Engine 416 may consider monitoring and design factors,represented by 424. For example, Supply Pools may be defined by acombination of design factors (e.g., cooling/power budgets) andmonitoring points that describe the threshold or limitations of the datacenter.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary flowchart for an auto-placement feature,according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5,an embodiment of the present invention may automatically recommend abest or optimal location for equipment to be placed in a particular datacenter.

At 510, a data center request may be received. For example, the systemmay receive specifications for a type of hardware that needs to beplaced. The specifications may include data relating to site, space,power, cooling, network, cabling, security and/or other requirements,data and preferences, represented by 512. Site data points may refer tolocation and space within a data center. Space data points may refer toan amount of physical space associated with the reservation. Power datapoints may refer to total power allocation. Cooling data points mayrefer to a volume of air for equipment (e.g., high, medium, low, etc.).Network data points may refer to distribution required (e.g., grid,etc.). Cabling data points may refer to upstream cabling requirements tocabling distribution (e.g., copper, multimode fiber, single mode fiber,etc.). Security data points may refer to colocation requirements orcabling locking requirements for WAN and other equipment.

At 514, DCOS API may retrieve requirements. The API of an embodiment ofthe present invention may run a number of customizable rules to find anoptimal placement location, at 516. The system may determine whether therequest can be fulfilled, at 518. Customizable rules may includerestricting placement locations due to specific constraints at sites,encouraging placement locations that optimize cost and existingresources, etc. For example, a customizable rule may ensure if twoinstances of a services are requested then they will not be placed inthe same area, fed by the same power source or share a single upstreamnetwork switch to maintain resiliency. The API may then return arecommended location to a requester or other user, at 524. Therecommended location may include an optimum location, alternatelocations and/or other options which may be based on various factors andconsiderations, such as space, cost, efficiency, proximity, etc., asshown by 526 If a particular request cannot be fulfilled, as determinedby 520, the system may provide an explanation that includes constrainingfactors and/or other limitations and restrictions at 522. The orderillustrated in FIG. 5 is merely exemplary. While the process of FIG. 5illustrates certain steps performed in a particular order, it should beunderstood that the embodiments of the present invention may bepracticed by adding one or more steps to the processes, omitting stepswithin the processes and/or altering the order in which one or moresteps are performed.

Other embodiments, uses, and advantages of the invention will beapparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of thespecification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. Thespecification and examples should be considered exemplary only, and thescope of the invention is accordingly not intended to be limitedthereby.

While the exemplary embodiments described herein may show the variousembodiments of the invention (or portions thereof) collocated, it is tobe appreciated that the various components of the various embodimentsmay be located at distant portions of a distributed network, such as alocal area network, a wide area network, a telecommunications network,an intranet and/or the Internet, or within a dedicated object handlingsystem. Thus, it should be appreciated that the components of thevarious embodiments may be combined into one or more devices orcollocated on a particular node of a distributed network, such as atelecommunications network, for example. As will be appreciated from thefollowing description, and for reasons of computational efficiency, thecomponents of the various embodiments may be arranged at any locationwithin a distributed network without affecting the operation of therespective system.

Data and information maintained by a Processor may be stored andcataloged in a Database which may comprise or interface with asearchable database. The database may comprise, include or interface toa relational database. Other databases, such as a query format database,a Standard Query Language (SQL) format database, a storage area network(SAN), or another similar data storage device, query format, platform orresource may be used. The database may comprise a single database or acollection of databases, dedicated or otherwise. In one embodiment, thedatabase may store or cooperate with other databases to store thevarious data and information described herein. In some embodiments, thedatabase may comprise a file management system, program or applicationfor storing and maintaining data and information used or generated bythe various features and functions of the systems and methods describedherein. In some embodiments, the database may store, maintain and permitaccess to participant information, transaction information, accountinformation, and general information used to process transactions asdescribed herein. In some embodiments, the database is connecteddirectly to the Processor, which, in some embodiments, it is accessiblethrough a network, such as a communication network, for example.

Communications network may be comprised of, or may interface to any oneor more of, the Internet, an intranet, a Personal Area Network (PAN), aLocal Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Metropolitan AreaNetwork (MAN), a storage area network (SAN), a frame relay connection,an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) connection, a synchronous opticalnetwork (SONET) connection, a digital T1, T3, E1 or E3 line, a DigitalData Service (DDS) connection, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)connection, an Ethernet connection, an Integrated Services DigitalNetwork (ISDN) line, a dial-up port such as a V.90, a V.34 or a V.34bisanalog modem connection, a cable modem, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode(ATM) connection, a Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) connection,or a Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI) connection.

Communications network may also comprise, include or interface to anyone or more of a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) link, a GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS) link, a Global System for MobileCommunication (GSM) link, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) link ora Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) link such as a cellular phonechannel, a Global Positioning System (GPS) link, a cellular digitalpacket data (CDPD) link, a Research in Motion, Limited (RIM) duplexpaging type device, a Bluetooth radio link, or an IEEE 802.11-basedradio frequency link. Communications network 107 may further comprise,include or interface to any one or more of an RS-232 serial connection,an IEEE-1394 (Firewire) connection, a Fibre Channel connection, aninfrared (IrDA) port, a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI)connection, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection or another wired orwireless, digital or analog interface or connection.

In some embodiments, communication network may comprise a satellitecommunications network, such as a direct broadcast communication system(DBS) having the requisite number of dishes, satellites andtransmitter/receiver boxes, for example. Communications network may alsocomprise a telephone communications network, such as the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN). In another embodiment, communication networkmay comprise a Personal Branch Exchange (PBX), which may further connectto the PSTN.

In some embodiments, the processor may include any terminal (e.g., atypical personal computer system, telephone, personal digital assistant(PDA) or other like device) whereby a user may interact with a network,such as communications network, for example, that is responsible fortransmitting and delivering data and information used by the varioussystems and methods described herein. The processor may include, forinstance, a personal or laptop computer, a telephone, or PDA. Theprocessor may include a microprocessor, a microcontroller or othergeneral or special purpose device operating under programmed control.The processor may further include an electronic memory such as a randomaccess memory (RAM) or electronically programmable read only memory(EPROM), a storage such as a hard drive, a CDROM or a rewritable CDROMor another magnetic, optical or other media, and other associatedcomponents connected over an electronic bus, as will be appreciated bypersons skilled in the art. The processor may be equipped with anintegral or connectable cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display(LCD), electroluminescent display, a light emitting diode (LED) oranother display screen, panel or device for viewing and manipulatingfiles, data and other resources, for instance using a graphical userinterface (GUI) or a command line interface (CLI). The processor mayalso include a network-enabled appliance, a browser-equipped or othernetwork-enabled cellular telephone, or another TCP/IP client or otherdevice.

The system of the invention or portions of the system of the inventionmay be in the form of a “processing machine,” such as a general purposecomputer, for example. As used herein, the term “processing machine” isto be understood to include at least one processor that uses at leastone memory. The at least one memory stores a set of instructions. Theinstructions may be either permanently or temporarily stored in thememory or memories of the processing machine. The processor executes theinstructions that are stored in the memory or memories in order toprocess data. The set of instructions may include various instructionsthat perform a particular task or tasks, such as those tasks describedabove in the flowcharts. Such a set of instructions for performing aparticular task may be characterized as a program, software program, orsimply software.

The embodiments of the present inventions are not to be limited in scopeby the specific embodiments described herein. For example, although manyof the embodiments disclosed herein have been described with referenceto identifying events and communicating notification, the principlesherein are equally applicable to other applications. Indeed, variousmodifications of the embodiments of the present inventions, in additionto those described herein, will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art from the foregoing description and accompanying drawings.Thus, such modifications are intended to fall within the scope of thefollowing appended claims.

Further, although the embodiments of the present inventions have beendescribed herein in the context of a particular implementation in aparticular environment for a particular purpose, those of ordinary skillin the art will recognize that its usefulness is not limited thereto andthat the embodiments of the present inventions can be beneficiallyimplemented in any number of environments for any number of purposes.Accordingly, the claims set forth below should be construed in view ofthe full breadth and spirit of the embodiments of the present inventionsas disclosed herein.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented data centeroperating system comprising: a memory component that stores inventorydata for a plurality of data centers; an interactive interface thatreceives one or more user inputs; an API input that receives data fromone or more data center systems; and a processor, coupled to the APIinput, memory component and the interactive interface, the processorconfigured to perform the steps comprising: receiving, via the APIinput, monitored data from a plurality of data centers at one or morelocations, wherein the monitored data includes live power data;automatically generating, via the processor, an interactive data centerfloorplan, drawn in scalable vector graphics via a JavaScript ObjectNotation object, that comprises: (i) one or more devices, (ii) themonitored data at a device-level for a specific data center, (iii) livecolor layering and live data pertaining to power utilization trends anddevice density, (iv) warning limits and breaches pertaining to powerutilization, (v) real-time heat maps, and (vi) historical heat data;making the one or more devices within interactive data center floorplansearchable from one or more SQL databases; and displaying, via theinteractive interface, a view region and a top bar, the top barcomprising a data center dropdown menu for selecting one of the datacenters, a space or floor dropdown menu for selecting a space or floorwithin the selected data center, and information summarizingmeasurements for the selected space or floor of the selected datacenter; displaying, in the view region, a bird's eye view of theinteractive data center floorplan comprising a plurality of racks, eachrack comprising a display of one or more devices with correspondingpower measurements; receiving a selection of a particular rack from thebird's eye view; in response to receiving the selection of theparticular rack, displaying a rack pattern view for the particular rackin the view region, the rack pattern view comprising: a column with aplurality of groups, wherein each group is separated by one or moreblank rows, and wherein each group includes one or more devices thatconform to a respective criteria for that group, a power bar comprisingwith a slidable button, and detailed data for the particular rack in thespecific data center, the detailed data comprising real-time powermeasurement, power recorded over an arbitrary period of time, electricalphase balance, power trending, local temperatures, local pressures, andlocal airflows; receiving a user input moving the button along the powerbar; and in response to the user input moving the button along the powerbar, recalculating measurements of capacity, power reduction, and racksat risk in accordance with a release of stranded capacity commensuratewith the movement of the button.
 2. The computer implemented system ofclaim 1, the processor further configured to perform the step of: forracks at risk corresponding to the racks at risk data, automaticallygenerating site data, most at risk rack data and power overage data. 3.The computer implemented system of claim 1, further comprising: arecommendation engine that receives a request for change and generates aresponse that maximizes utilization of data center assets.
 4. Thecomputer implemented system of claim 3, wherein the request for changehas a corresponding demand profile that is managed by a pattern modulethat highlights existing analysis on corresponding equipment.
 5. Thecomputer implemented system of claim 3, wherein the recommendationengine receives data from a supply pool defined by a combination ofdesign factors and monitoring points that identify limitations of a datacenter.
 6. A computer implemented method that operates a data centersystem, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, via an API input,monitored data from a plurality of data centers at one or morelocations, and from one or more data center systems, wherein themonitored data includes live power data; automatically generating, via aprocessor, an interactive data center floorplan, drawn in scalablevector graphics via a JavaScript Object Notation object, that populatesthe floorplan with: (i) one or more devices, (ii) the monitored data ata device-level for a specific data center, (iii) live color layering andlive data pertaining to power utilization trends and device density,(iv) warning limits and breaches pertaining to power utilization, (v)real-time heat maps, and (vi) historical heat data, wherein theprocessor is coupled to the API input, a memory component and aninteractive interface; making the one or more devices within interactivedata center floorplan searchable from one or more SQL databases;displaying, via an interactive interface, a view region and a top bar,the top bar comprising a data center dropdown menu for selecting one ofthe data centers, a space or floor dropdown menu for selecting a spaceor floor within the selected data center, and information summarizingmeasurements for the selected space or floor of the selected datacenter; displaying, in the view region, a bird's eye view of theinteractive data center floorplan comprising a plurality of racks, eachrack comprising a display of one or more devices with correspondingpower measurements; receiving, via the interactive interface, aselection of a particular rack from the bird's eye view; in response toreceiving the selection of the particular rack, displaying a rackpattern view for the particular rack in the view region, the rackpattern view comprising: a column with a plurality of groups, whereineach group is separated by one or more blank rows, and wherein eachgroup includes one or more devices that conform to a respective criteriafor that group, a power bar comprising with a slidable button, anddetailed data for the particular rack in a particular data center, thedetailed data comprising real-time power measurement, power recordedover an arbitrary period of time, electrical phase balance, powertrending, local temperatures, local pressures, and local airflows;receiving a user input via the interactive interface moving the buttonalong the power bar; and in response to the user input moving the buttonalong the power bar, recalculating measurements of capacity, powerreduction, and racks at risk in accordance with a release of strandedcapacity commensurate with the movement of the button.
 7. The computerimplemented method of claim 6, further comprising the step of: for theracks at risk, automatically generating site data, most at risk rackdata and power overage data.
 8. The computer implemented method of claim6, further comprising the step of: receiving, via a recommendationengine, a request for change and generating a response that maximizesutilization of data center assets.
 9. The computer implemented method ofclaim 8, wherein the request for change has a corresponding demandprofile that is managed by a pattern module that highlights existinganalysis on corresponding equipment.
 10. The computer implemented methodof claim 8, wherein the recommendation engine receives data from asupply pool defined by a combination of design factors and monitoringpoints that identify limitations of a data center.